TSA pats down a screaming toddler

You might think a 3-year-old would whiz through security. A child is non-threatening, wears slip-on shoes, and carries little luggage.

Mandy Simon suffered through a TSA pat down.

Not the case for Mandy Simon who was passing through security with her dad at the airport in Chattanooga, Tenn.

A TSA employee gave Mandy the pat down and she started screaming and kicking her legs. Her dad, Steve, happens to be a TV reporter and caught 17 seconds of the ordeal on his cell phone (watch video).

Why was Mandy searched in the first place? She started crying when she was asked to put her teddy bear through the X-ray machine. This made it difficult for her to walk calmly through the metal detector and she set the machine off twice, which meant she “must be hand-searched.”

If the TSA is going to search kids, maybe they need a little training on how to do it–or at least employees should have a few lollipops or stickers in their pockets.